Council Post: Learning Leaves: How To Upskill Employees, Avoid Layoffs And Foster Innovation

Until the mid-20th century, the government was commonly expected to ensure full employment. When the private sector could not provide opportunities, federally funded infrastructure programs like the New Deal put people to work. This response receded after the Second World War, but the economy was surging, and for several decades the demand for workers and loyalty to employers remained high.

The era of the “company man” ended as we entered the 1970s. Then, in the 1980s, CEOs like Jack Welch made mass layoffs popular. There were few disincentives to protect workers. If anything, the stock market rewarded corporate boards for their short-term thinking.

Today, companies are defaulting to layoffs. They are trying to stay afloat, but are also underestimating the negative impacts of this knee-jerk response to the economic downturn. Furthermore, companies are severing trust with the very people who helped them succeed up to this point, and upon whose shoulders they will need to lean to stand a chance at solving the plethora of challenges — those already here and those coming soon — as we progress further into the 21st century.

I see this as a chance for CEOs to turn toward learning and get a leg up. Instead, over 38 million people are unemployed, and more are getting laid off every week.

Today, there’s a moral imperative to stop the layoffs. This is a choice. Jeb Bush has said education is “the great civil rights challenge of our time.” It’s time to reskill our workers and pay back the societal debts we’ve ignored in education and work, the biggest offender being the growing skills gap.

This isn’t the first we’ve heard of these structural issues. In 2019, PwC announced a $3 billion investment in job training, while Amazon pledged $700 million to reskill workers by 2025, and JPMorgan made a $350 million plan to prepare its workforce for the future of work. More companies should follow this example, even if they don’t have money to throw at the problem.

In reality, the problem isn’t only about money, but also about time and space. But there are high-quality, low-cost, new-age training options to reskill workers, and companies don’t need to settle for layoffs or furloughs.

Companies including Adobe, HubSpot and Salesforce already offer learning sabbaticals after dedicated time with the organization. Instead of layoffs, Nokia developed a more detailed plan, with five options, including their Bridge program, which provided support to help employees upskill.

Still, layoffs seem like the easy way out. Even well-capitalized Silicon Valley companies such as Airbnb, Uber, Lyft and Yelp all recently announced significant layoffs.

How To Say No To Layoffs

What actions can your company take to do this differently, or to say no to layoffs altogether? From a landscape of possibilities, learning leaves are a great place to start.

A learning leave is a sabbatical paired with education, development, a training program or some other initiative intended to facilitate professional growth. Depending on the company’s available resources, it may be unpaid, partially paid or fully paid, and should be flexible in terms of duration, financing and business objectives. Companies can fill skill gaps, and workers will gain experience in the blended learning and working world we are fast entering.

Why couldn’t this model have worked before now? Well, it could have, and it did for early adopters who allocated resources and time to workers and chose training providers wisely. We are swiftly leaving behind the previous era where education programs were slower, more expensive and often site-based. In addition, the rise of and progress in online education means that today, more options are available than ever. Consider the range, from massive open online courses (MOOCs) to self-directed resources to intensive bootcamps intent on delivering skills, from better quality providers at lower costs than ever before.

Now, learning leaves of any duration can be paired with a meaningful upskilling opportunity.

Align Learning Leaves With Future Employment Needs

Let’s not settle for a good idea poorly executed. Learning leaves are most effective when aligned with future employment needs, available jobs or high-growth jobs. The result? Employees get the skills they need, while companies get innovation, productivity, engagement and reputation. The economy benefits from a foundation of worker-employer trust driven by long-term thinking.

If we master the art and science of learning leaves, we can reverse injustices, support a swift economic recovery, and equip our workers and employers for the future of work.